Video: Rapper battles against parking garage at Portsmouth City Council meeting

Thursday

Dec 13, 2012 at 3:15 AMDec 13, 2012 at 3:58 PM

PORTSMOUTH — Marisa Kang, an employee of Portsmouth Health Food on Congress Street, expressed her opposition to a parking garage proposal at a meeting of the Portsmouth City Council earlier this month in the form of a rap.

By JIM HADDADINjhaddadin@fosters.com

PORTSMOUTH — "This is probably not what you guys are used to for commentary," Marisa Kang said, facing members of the Portsmouth City Council. "But here goes."

With those words, Kang, an employee of the health food store on Congress Street, launched into a rhyming commentary during the Dec. 3 meeting.

In the midst of a heated discussion over the prospect of a new parking garage being constructed inside Portsmouth's Worth parking lot, Kang implored the nine members of the city council to drop the idea, via an unaccompanied rap.

"This here's a rap about the Worth lot / Your decision should be based upon the people, if you forgot / And I believe you should find a new spot / before the whales are nothing but a ... construction plot," Kang rhymed, referencing the well-known mural of humpback whales inside the lot painted by artist Robert Wyland.

An employee of Portsmouth Health Food, a store located nearby the lot, Kang went on to list some of the aesthetic benefits of the area, and asked the council to squelch future discussion of the parking garage proposal.

"There's so many reasons why this plan should stop," she rapped. "Step into the shoes of the owners of the shops / around Vaughan Mall. You know that their business would drop."

The council ultimately voted 5-4 to halt any further discussion on the Worth lot as the future site of a parking structure, according to a report from The Portsmouth Herald.